Public warning against anti-vaccination website

26th Jul 2010

Rada Rouse all articles by this author

3 comments

THE website run by anti-vaccination group the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) is a risk to public health and safety, a government watchdog says.

The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) today issued a public warning against the AVN for its failure to state material on its website is not medical advice.

This follows investigation of two complaints about the AVN in which the commission established that the group provided “incorrect and misleading” information and quoted selectively from research to suggest vaccination may be dangerous.

The commission had given the AVN 14 days to include a prominent disclaimer on its website that its purpose was to provide information against vaccination and that the decision to vaccinate or not should be made in consultation with a healthcare provider.

“The AVN’s failure to include a notice on its website of the nature recommended by the commission may result in members of the public making improperly informed decisions about whether or not to vaccinate, and therefore poses a risk to public health and safety,” the commission said in a media statement.

The commission has no power to take any further action, HCCC executive officer Kim Swan said.

One of the complainants, Ken McLeod from a group called Stop the AVN, said he now wanted to see a government-backed campaign in favour of vaccination.

AVN spokeswoman Meryl Dorey said the HCCC investigation was “biased” and the AVN disputed its jurisdiction to investigate her organisation, which was neither a healthcare provider nor educator under the Health Care Complaints Act.

The AVN was taking legal advice on future steps to defend against allegations its information was “anything but complete, unbiased and fully referenced from the medical literature”, she said.

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Lee Simes
26th Jul 2010
4:14pm

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Now the authorities take on forces like the AVN completely ineffectually. You can be sure that the HCCC will even give them the opportunity to appeal or some such pansy platitude .... In dealing with The AVN's sort of bilge the authorities need an anchorperson who is totally devoid of good manners, utterly disrespectful of political correctness, someone with a hide like rhinoceros and who gets his rocks off tearing into the pompous, the ignorant, the stupid and the self-satisfied.... I was going to volunteer myself but I'm far too mild-mannered for that sort of role.....Lee Simes

concerned
26th Jul 2010
9:44pm

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Ignorance will never win out over intelligence. All it takes is intelligence to see that the AVN site is merely providing publicly available information that the Government is not or will not provide doctors and the public in general. This much needed information enables the public to make informed decisions about their own medical treatment. Let's not forget that It was the AVN that fought and won in Parliament to finally have the Government create the VAERS, Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. If you refer to this information, you will see the alarming increase in adverse events to Vaccinations in Australia and the USA. VAERS are doctor reported and it is understood that only 10% of actual adverse events are actually reported. Lee Simes & Ken McLeod are free to chose whether they would like to be included in any vaccination program they wish. The public is also free to make this choice. Intelligence dictates that we need information to make such choices just as you need information to decide what candidate to vote for in government. All you need to do is write to the AVN for any information you need and if they have it they will provide it along with any medical reference information available. R. Kolarik

concerned
3rd Aug 2010
8:57pm

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Yes indeed "concerned." The public is also free to make this choice, but the choice must be based on facts and not misreprestations from cranks. Ken McLeod

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